Recent and Future Performances by Robert Young McMahan
of Original Contemporary Works for or Including Accordion
Robert Young McMahan premiered his latest composition, Romp 5, for violin, cello, and accordion, at the 2017 AAA Master Class and Concert Series, at the Tenri Institute, in New York, July 28, with Emmanual Borowsky, violin, Cecylia Barczyk, cello, and McMahan, accordion. The work will be performed again by the same artists in a concert entitled “Music Off the Beaten Path,” at Towson University (near Baltimore), in the Music Department Recital Hall, on Sunday, October 22, at 3:00 PM; and a joint concert entitled “Bellows and Bows,” featuring contemporary works for violin and cello, and violin, cello, and accordion at The College of New Jersey, Ewing NJ (near Trenton), on February 3, 2018, at 8:00 PM. In addition to McMahan’s work on the latter program, the trio will also perform the AAA commission Triologue, for violin, cello, and accordion, by Lukas Foss (which the ensemble also performed at the Friday evening concert of the AAA Festival in Princeton, NJ, on July 14), and Introduction and Allegro, for cello and accordion, by Mátyás Seiber.
In addition to his own Romp 5, Dr. McMahan also participated as a performer in the premieres of three other new works at the above mentioned concert at the Tenri Institute: Entropic Orbit, for bassoon and accordion (2017), by Devon Tipp: with Tipp on bassoon; Ozymandias, for sho and accordion (2017), by Devon Tipp: with Zachary Hap Seligman Karen on sho; De Witt Etudes, nos. 1, 8 (2017), by Dave Soldier (one of the AAA commissioned composers of the past): with William Schimmel, accordion; Devon Tipp, bassoon; Denise Lutter, flute; Dan Cooper, 7-string electric bass.
Dr. McMahan also played Curriculum Vitae, by Lukas Foss, at Tenri on Sunday of that annual, three-day event. This solo piece was the first of the two Foss works commissioned by the AAA (the above mentioned Triologue, being the second).
The performances of all of the above works were video taped and may be heard and seen on Youtube, with the exceptions of the Seiber and Soldier selections.
Dr. McMahan is Professor of Music Theory and Composition at The College of New Jersey, where a major in Accordion is also offered
